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July 10th, 2005: Hurricane Dennis roars ashore ... with 120+ mph winds.
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The top of a telephone pole lies in the middle of Via de Luna after Hurricane Dennis passed over Pensacola Beach on Sunday, July 10, 2005. (Dan Currier/Special to The News Journal; Copyright © 1997-2005; Pensacola News Journal.) [The PNJ web-site.] |
Oh
boy, just what Pensacola needed, another CTAD.
(NOT!!!) [more]
(Good CNN story,
be sure to look for the link with: "Trail of destruction."
A "CTAD" is a 'Catastrophic Tropical Atmospheric
Disturbance,' ... I got this term from a science book.)
The second Sunday of July - we got hit with another one, and it did quite a bit of damage to the Pensacola area.
Praise the Lord, my family and I survived the ordeal OK, however, there are many people in this area that were left homeless by yet another big storm. The power was knocked out - here, where I live - from Sunday - shortly before landfall, until about 1645 hours, Thursday. I got some nice pictures with my digital camera, this is my page for this whole (terrible) event. (07/15/05)
Search the 'net for more info on Hurricane Dennis.
A.J.'s photo's of the damage - just around my home.
(All of these pictures are my own work, and are copyrighted to me!)
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The
winds ripped off the roof of this building, |
... and
then landed on this car. |
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This 40-foot-plus oak tree could have done severe damage if it had hit the back of our building. (Miraculously, it fell parallel to the unit.) |
This tree could have ripped off the end of the building just behind us, but - thanks to God's mercy - it fell away from the building. |
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It seems like we just got the fence fixed ... and now it is messed up again! (In the foreground, two tree stumps - both courtesy of Ivan.) |
The trees (everywhere) took a terrible beating ... but (thankfully) the buildings in this complex were spared major damage. |
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Tall trees ... were snapped off, just like twigs. |
The view from my front door (after the storm) - was surreal. |
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This
tree cannot be saved. |
You can see the same tree - as in the previous photo - here, from a slightly different angle. (The cars hide even more debris, that is laying on the ground.) |
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Trees
- and branches - everywhere! |
This
is a nearly overturned tree in front of one building in our complex. |
Right now - you can go to the "WEAR-TV" web site, and click on the link for the "Hurricane Dennis" photo gallery. (Most of these pics were taken by local folks like me.)
Some {personal} observations
Well, it seems we just got over Ivan (The Terrible), and we got popped again. What a mess.
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- I have already been driving around Pensacola - with friends. And the amount of damage to the trees is just incredible. Every home I have seen has a huge pile of wood and branches out by the curb. Huge piles of debris await pick-up in front of practically every home in the area.
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- We did without power from Sunday until Thursday evening. The mean, day-time temperature indoors was in the 85-89 degree range, but this reading comes on a wall in the interior of our home. With strong sunlight, the humidity, and almost no air moving, it felt a whole lot hotter. (It felt just like a sauna - most of the time!)
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- We had to throw out all the food in our refrigerator - as did many people who live in Pensacola ... or one of the surrounding areas.
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- I barbecued several nights, and just gave {cooked} food away ... rather than watch it go bad.
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- My daughter Juli-anna (6) is autistic. It was hardest on her and the baby, Angel (4) was constantly drenched with sweat. Tater, (Juli-anna's nickname); was running around Tuesday night, screaming, crying and tears just streaming down her face. She kept saying - over and over again - stuff like: "TV, TV, TV, please!!! Daddy, I'm sooooo sorry. I be good., I promise. PLEEEASE turn TV on!!" I obviously felt horrible, and other than to hold her, there was nothing that I could do. (I felt both tired and helpless, as any parent would feel in a situation like this one. All-in-all, it was a very miserable and a discouraging week.)
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- It became standard practice to go outside about 3:30 PM very afternoon, until about 8:00 ... or even later. It was hot outside, and you would be eaten alive by the bugs. But it was still better than being inside the house, where it felt like you could not breathe, because of the extreme heat.
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- No one could get any real sleep ... in such heat. The first night that the electricity came back on, Tater was delighted. She watched TV, and I gave her a bath. Then she went to bed, and promptly slept something like 15 straight hours. (All of us are probably a little tired.)
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- Even during the daytime, a flashlight became my constant companion. Our bathroom - was both hot - and being situated far away from any window, it was also as dark as a tomb.
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- There is a "boil-water" order in effect ... that could last for several months. This means you should not drink tap-water, unless you boil it. I have already spent close to $100.00 alone ... just on bottled water for drinking and cooking. Lugging it home from the store is also a lot of fun, especially for people like me who are unable to drive and do not own a car.
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- I discovered a brand-new way to perspire. Basically, I would drink water ... and it came squirting out of every pore on my body. (Just like in the cartoons, when a guy gets shot full of holes, and then tries to take a drink.)
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- At night, all you could hear was the generators running, it drowned out nearly everything else.
(I could only wish that I had one!)
Daddy versus Ailene (in chess)
The following game was played during the period when the lights were out, probably the second night after the storm. I was blindfold, (sans chess board or set). My daughter Ailene, aged eight, used her chess set and board, which were set up on the kitchen floor. (She had to use three flashlights and an electrical lantern to try and see.) She also recorded the game.
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Ailene
Goldsby (age 8) - A.J. Goldsby I (blindfold)
Hurricane "Fun Game" # 01 / July, 2005.
Pensacola, FL/USA
This was a little game I played against my daughter. She seemed very anxious to play me, so I played her "blindfold," i.e., I did not use a chess board or set.
The lights had been knocked out ... due to Hurricane Dennis having moved through.
1.d4 Nf6;
2.Bg5!?,
I laughed out loud, my own daughter played the (hated)
"Tromp" against me.
(She spent about 10 minutes thinking about what to play here.)
[ 2.c4, is the most common move here. ]
2...Ne4!?;
3.Bh4 g5; 4.Bg3 d6; 5.f4?! Nxg3; 6.hxg3 Bg7;
7.Rh5!? g4; 8.Rg5 Bf6; 9.Rd5 c6!?;
("=/+") {Black is clearly better.}
Not the best move, but I really was unable to concentrate here. (the
heat)
[ >/= 9...h5! ]
White's next move is forced.
10.Rh5 Qa5+ ???;
I had told my daughter to be on the look-out for tricky moves during this game.
I figured this would be a good way to end the game quickly. (One
way ... or the other!)
[ >/= 10...Qb6; 11.e3 Qxb2; "/+" ]
11.RxQ/a5,
"+/-" Black Resigns.
All the next day, my daughter was very excited. She kept telling my wife,
(Julie):
"Mommy, I beat my Daddy in a chess game!"
1 - 0
In closing - just so that you don't get the wrong idea - I am very thankful to the Lord God, (and his Son, Jesus Christ); to have survived this terrible ordeal. We were blessed not to have any broken windows or have our roof torn off. We came through it all in one piece, and I am eternally grateful.
I say a small prayer, more than one family has lost their home, especially those that live near the water.
It was a miserable, stressful, and exhausting week. But the most important thing of all is that no one died {directly} during the storm. Fences - and other physical things - these can be fixed. But God was kind enough to spare us the full fury of the storm. (Just before landfall, the storm weakened somewhat, which is exactly what I was praying for. The pressure went up, the winds went down to a Cat. III, and the eye-wall even began to break up just a little.) So I continue to Praise God and count my blessings.
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(IF you would like to see my page for Hurricane Ivan
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Copyright (c) A.J. Goldsby I
Copyright
(©) A.J. Goldsby, 1995 - 2008.
Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 2009. All
rights reserved.
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This page was first posted on my website on: Sunday; July 17th, 2005. -----> It was last updated (edited/saved) on: 06/28/2009 .
